Best Campgrounds near Elberta, MI

After a decent ruck in, you have some immediate camped spots and can travel further for even more. Summer time is busy so get there early for a spot. Have been multiple times with bigger groups and have always found a spot for tents and hammocks. Enjoy hikes down the best for a distance view of the dunes and enjoy fires with lake views at night.

Great location away from everything. Spacious sites that are spread out. We stayed in the Oak Loop. Only 5 minute easy walk to beach. Quiet. Enough cell reception to send a text but that's it. Pit toilets only in Oak and Violet loops. Flush toilets in hemlock and orchid loop. No showers, but showers available at convenience store down the street during the summer.

A small gem of a place. Park and pay to be in the National Forest...or disperse camping on Green Rd. We parked and hiked the mile and a half in to the Dunes. Take all your gear that you need if you don't want to trek back. Can not ride bike in or have anything with wheels on the trail. At the end of the Beautiful hike you come to the Dunes. Go to the right and you will see some spots to put a tent up(do not camp on Dunes or beach). To the right is easy walk and find. If you head to the left you will have to walk over some Dunes for a bit but this is where we went and found a perfect spot right where the forest and Dunes meet. Very short walk to the beach and it's AMAZING! We had it all to ourselves for hours. It's like looking at the ocean. Beautiful views, sunsets, night sky's. The water was warm and you could walk out a ways before it got deep. Great for swimming. It was perfect. One of my favorite spots away from the busy crowds. So worth the hike. Make sure you get wood and might have to hike it in. There is little to NO wood out there laying around. If you are willing to put the work in to hike out there then I promise it's worth it.

Elk is a great place to spend the night after a day of paddling or fishing.  There are four sites with decent space between them.  The pit toilet was decently clean and well away from the sites, so no smell.  The only downside is that access is tricky.  The landing is a steep bank with large rocks on the river bank.

Went there to use dump station after camping at the local veterans retreat, nice facilities and staff. 15$ fee to use dump station

Stayed at site 3. It was a relatively easy hike until you hit a hilly spot towards the campground. Mid July was very buggy.

Site 3 has easy access to an overlook which we made use of for photos of a storm that rolled in over North Manitou Island, our original destination. There was one vault toilet at the opposite end of the campground.

Like at Weatherstation, it was easy enough to get down to the beach for swimming and refilling our Grayls but to get back up was a bit of a challenge that grew old after a few trips.

Our last night, we stayed at the Bay campground which was nice. Fire rings are available and getting to and from the water was much easier. I'd recommend the Bay for people who want a more leisurely experience and one of the other campgrounds if you want to get some miles and get more rustic.

No running water.
No electricity.

No flush toilets.

No internet.
No phone signal.

Pure heaven.

Rustic campsites. 50-100 yards from the river. Great water from the pump. Nice clean vault toilet. Very quiet at night. Peaceful and beautiful. We've gone ever year for the last 5 years. Going again next year.

Highly recommend a satellite-based GPS unit like Garmin or TomTom in your car. I was serious when I said no phone signal so Google Maps ain't gonna' get you there.

The campground is a small, family friendly campground that has a lot of activities for both adults and kids. It is clean, has level sites and well maintained facilities.

This was a great campground, quiet and peaceful in the cherry orchard area of west Michigan, near Glen Arbor and Traverse City.

Our site, #20, had an improved gravel parking area for camper with a finished concrete pad with a picnic table.

Site, and whole campground was clean and well maintained. Our site was a full hookup but had one small issue where the drain dump was slightly uphill from the camper, so we had to work with the drain hose to empty tanks.

Only other negative is that there are no trees for the majority of sites for shade cover.

This was a good spot for a two night stay as it’s close to the Sleeping Bear National Dunes and also many local wineries.

Have fun!

Not a bad campground. Easy drive to Traverse City. Camp store is small and closes early, 7pm.

Nice spot with a fire pit. I don’t think you can get a trailer in the spot but I pulled up in my truck and setup a tent right next to it. I can’t hear anyone else and it’s elevated above the road. Nice and peaceful

Our site was $65.63 a night. (This was the average after receiving one night free for staying a week).

We were in Site# 4A (premium site). We had Full hook- up with a blacktop pull-through.
We travel towing a 14 foot trailer and were able to fit both in our pull through site along with my jeep.
The site was easy to level.

Our site was not shaded with limited trees. This was a smaller lot with our neighbors fairly close.

The lot comes with a concrete patio with picnic table. There was not a fire ring since only propane fires are allowed.

There is free WiFi. They do not offer Cable TV but there are many local channels.

There is an adult pub-style game room with poker tables, a large tv, a table shuffle board, air hockey game, foosball table, and board games. There is a community catering kitchen located in their activities center.

They do not provide garbage service at your site so you must walk to garbage dumpster. This can be a long distance for some.

You are allowed to ride personal golf carts. They also allow you to rent golf carts. It is beneficial to have a golf cart to get around since it is a large campground. We have our own e-bikes which helped.

They do have a large heated Swimming pool and an adults only hot tub. There is a fitness center.

They have quite a few ponds throughout the campground.

There is not a Playground. They offer pickleball courts.

There is not a general store nor snack bar/restaurant on site.

The streets are paved and good for riding bikes.

This is solely an RV park. They do not have any cabins to rent or any tent areas.

The showers are located in the activity center. These are typical stalls. There is a great area to hang clothes and store your toiletries in the shower stall. These are kept very clean.

There is a laundry facility. There are approximately 4 washers and 4 dryers. They allow you to use cash or an app. It is approximately $2.25 to wash and $2 to dry a load.

They do not have a fenced in dog park. There are areas to walk dogs though.

Bugs/gnats were a small issue and bug spray was needed.

There is supposedly a mowed trail to hike off of the campground (about 3 miles) but I was unable to locate it.

Some fun things to do outside of the campground are the shops (Front Street) & water activities in Traverse City, the local wineries/vineyards, and the DNR Outdoor Shooting range (5 miles away & free to the public). We ate at Yankee Boy where all of the locals hangout. Excellent food (no alcohol served).